Vinod Chandra Pande (16 February 1932 – 7 February 2005) was an Indian Civil Servant of the

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

Cadre, and was, notably, Cabinet Secretary in 1989–1990. He was a prolific writer and an erudite astrologer. He was born to a family which contributed two other Cabinet Secretaries (

B. D. Pande Bhairab Dutt Pande (17 March 1917 – 2009) was a member of the Indian Civil Service and Union Cabinet Secretary of the Government of India under Indira Gandhi. He served as the Governor of West Bengal (1981–1983), and Punjab (1983–1 ...

and Kamal Pande). His elder brother was noted scholar and historian

Govind Chandra Pande Govind Chandra Pande (30 July 1923 – 21 May 2011) was a well-known Indian scholar, philosopher and historian of the Vedic and the Buddhist periods. He served as professor of ancient history and vice-chancellor at Jaipur and Allahabad universi ...

He was

Cabinet Secretary A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...

from 23 December 1989 to 11 December 1990 under Prime Minister

V. P. Singh Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008) was an Indian politician who served as the prime minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the Raja Bahadur of Manda. He was educated at Allahabad University and Fergusson College in ...

(and earlier, revenue secretary under him when the latter was Finance Minister). They had earlier studied together at

Allahabad University The University of Allahabad is a Central University located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 23 September 1887 by an act of Parliament and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance (INI). It is the 4th oldest mode ...

. He served as Governor of Bihar (1999–2003),

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

(briefly during 2002), and

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

(2003–04), as an appointee of the

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian poet, writer and statesman who served as the prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months from 1998 ...

government. He had been a bachelor. He was a scholar of Hindi,

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

, and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, and a prolific writer in Hindi. He died in

Noida Noida (), short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (ISO: ), is a city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. As per provisional reports of Census of India, the population of Noida in 2011 was ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, two months after leaving the governorship of Arunachal Pradesh.

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